Spike Lee's underrated gems

by Cláudio Alves

It seems like Spike Lee's on everybody's mind these days. First and foremost, we have the release of the director's latest feature, Da 5 Bloods, to thank for such cultural prominence. However, it would be irresponsible not to mention how current events are also bringing people to this filmmaker's oeuvre. In a time when racial injustice is being actively protested on the streets, the Black excellence and political vigor of Spike Lee's movies seem more relevant than ever…

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Major Emmy Rule Changes

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

It’s been a big week for awards announcements. First the Oscars were postponed to April with an expanded eligibility window, and now the Emmys are making sweeping modifications that will affect every single category.

The deadline for contenders in all categories was June 5th, and while we won’t see ballots until July 2nd, it’s clear that the number of submissions are way up from last year by 15%. What that means is that both Best Drama Series and Best Comedy Series will have eight nominees (up from seven) and all of the series acting categories will be based on the number of contenders on the ballot. It’s a lot to process, but we’ll do our best…

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Almost There: Idris Elba in "Beasts of No Nation"

by Cláudio Alves

Spike Lee's latest joint, Da 5 Bloods, was released on Netflix last week and people are already talking about the possibility of Oscar glory. Delroy Lindo, in particular, is getting plenty of attention for what many call the best performance of his career. He's an early contender for the Academy Award. To observe such a reaction is to see how far Netflix has come in the past few years, effectively carving a place for itself in the Oscar race. It wasn't always like this and we need only look back at 2015 to find proof of it. Then, rewarding the cinematic excellence of films produced by streaming companies was still a relative taboo, a bridge too far for many awards bodies. 

If it weren't for the early resistance of AMPAS towards Netflix, Idris Elba would probably already be an Oscar-nominated actor…

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What did you see this week? (and the current "schedule" for movie theaters)

It has recently come to our attention that y'all miss the part of the weekend box office reports that were essentially a "what did you see this week?" comment party. So let's revive that because who knows when the hell we'll be back in movie theaters. The release dates keep shifting back by a couple of weeks or a couple of months here and there. There are rumors that even West Side Story is vacating the Christmas slot even though filming wrapped up long before the shutdown. Currently here is the wide release schedule...

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How Had I Never Seen... "But I'm a Cheerleader"?

by Cláudio Alves

To celebrate Pride Month, the Criterion Channel has chosen to highlight several works of queer cinema as well as various films featuring LGBTQIA+ characters. The selection is varied, spanning from Ettore Scola's Oscar-nominated A Special Day to the avant-garde work of Chantal Akerman and Cheryl Dunne. It's not all high-brow artistry -- there's space for kitschy entertainment, too. Such is the case of 1999's But I'm a Cheerleader directed by Jamie Babbit, a cult classic looking at gay conversion therapy through the prism of outrageous farcical humor. It's a movie I had never watched before, making it a great subject for this particular series…

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